The Zoologist — June, 1867. 793 



Hatvfinches Nesting in Kent. — Hawfinches have been unusually numerous here 

 this spring. I saw three on the 13ih of April, the first I had ever seen, anil became 

 acquainted with their note, " Izit" or " tzit-it," the knowledge of which was of great 

 use to me afterwards in detecting them among the tall leafy hornbeams. On April 

 25th I found a nest begun in a whitethorn, built of sticks, with lichen conspicuously 

 interspersed in it. This I found, from that often-quoted and very accurate descrip- 

 tion in Latham's ' Synopsis ' to be that of a hawfinch ; and I soon found another nest 

 in a tall whitethorn, by means of the old birds, who kept up a continual agitation 

 round me. I now actively pursued the search, and found between that lime and 

 May 8th eight other nests with eggs, and five which I considered to be new nests, they 

 being either difficult of access or unfinished when I went away. Of this large 

 number all were built in thorn-trees save the following, — three in elder-bushes, about 

 five or six feet from the ground, one in the hanging branches of a slender holly tree 

 (this one quite close to the house), one on the horizontal bough of a hornbeam, one in 

 a yew tree. By following up their note I found a flock of about twelve among some 

 tall hornbeams. Some of these would probably have built nests subsequent to my 

 departure. To find ten undoubted hawfinch's nests is, I believe, a rare occurrence for 

 a young ornithologist, especially considering that I had never seen a hawfinch, for 

 certain, previous to the four weeks in which I found the nests. — Clifton ; Cobham, 

 Kent. 



Crossbill at Ripon.—Oa Saturday, the 27th of April, I shot a crossbill flying with 

 great speed, together with eleven others : it was flying low. Its plumage was good 

 and the feathers on the back very bright. I have never seen crossbills here before.— 

 Goderich; Sludley Royal, Ripon, April 29, 1867. 



The Hoopoe near Hehton, Cornwall. — The Lizard district has given us a specimen 

 of the hoopoe this spring in the parish of Sithney. — E. H. Rodd ; Penzance, April 

 24, 1867. 



Kittiwake at Eastbourne. — Strange to say four or five have been procured lately, 

 in the full summer plumage, with the pure white head, &c. It seems singular, as I 

 never knew them got in that plumage here before, nor is there any breeding station 

 here that I know of. — John Dulton. 



The Silvery Hair-tail in Mount's Buy.— On the night of Tuesday, the 9th of April, 

 there was captured in the net of one of the Mount's Bay mackerel-boats a specimen of 

 the silvery hair-tail (Tiichiurus lepturus). It was placed in my hands in a perfect 

 state, and very shortly after its capture. As it is, so far as I know, the second speci- 

 men which has been British caught in a perfect condition, I subjoin a few particulars. 

 Length over all two feet nine inches. Its depth at a half inch in advance of the 

 origin of the pectoral was two inches and one-eighth, and it attained the same depth 

 precisely immediately behind the vent, between which two points its depth all along 

 was within one-eighth of an inch of the same measurement. The vent was twelve 

 inches and a half from the extreme tip of the lower jaw. The greatest breadth of the 

 fish was across the eyes, where it was one inch. The body reached its greatest depth 

 at nine inches from the tip of the lower jaw, where it was six-eighths of an inch 

 through. The dorsal fin contained one hundred and thirty-five rays all soft: it 

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